First and foremost, anytime a gas or pipeline company wants you to sign any contract you must thoroughly understand the document and any and all consequences that may result upon execution of the document.  Unfortunately, I have seen landowners lose hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars where they blindly executed serious legal documents without fully understanding their leverage and options.  It is important not to repeat these costly mistakes and make certain…

          An extremely hot issue at the present time involves post-production costs or “deductions” that landowners are seeing subtracted from their gas royalty checks.  Typically, boilerplate Oil and Gas Leases offered to landowners clearly permit the gas company to deduct post-production costs for the cost of producing, gathering, storing, separating, treating, dehydrating, processing, transporting and marketing the oil and gas. 

          In the 2010 Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s…

Many oil and gas leases throughout Pennsylvania are on the verge of expiring due to the gas companies’ inability to “hold” the property under the lease terms.  Gas companies holding expiring leases are often approaching landowners and seeking an “extension” of the expiring Oil and Gas Lease.  These extensions typically range from six (6) months to two (2) years, but can be for much longer.

Landowners who receive offers to extend their existing Gas Lease should contact…